End of concert with a bis: the instrumental version of the well-known Ride of the Valkyries, that opens the third act of The Valkyrie (The valkyrie). It was the flourish that paid homage to the stones of a Palau de la Música of Wagnerian architecture, with the sculptural group of the Valkyries on the arch of the stage. A flourish, also, of a highly anticipated concert, and which puts an end to the 4th edition of the Perelada Festival. Over the coming days, Madrid, Valencia, and Seville will enjoy the same program.The main attraction was the presence of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, known for its excellence. And it delivered, although the ensemble's sound is not the same as in the Festspielhaus, where the orchestra remains hidden beneath the stage, which contributes to a unique sound.The third visit of the Bayreuth lords to Barcelona (after those of 1955 and 2012 at the Liceu) will not have been the best. And it must be explained: the acoustics of the Palau are not those of a theater, and even less so of Bayreuth. Pablo Heras-Casado, who has proven to be a good Wagnerian conductor, and in 2028 will take over the leadership of The Ring of the Nibelung (The Ring of the Nibelung) to the German theater, he did not control the sound plans of the selected pages of the Wagnerian tetralogy enough. Apart from very slow tempos, the brass and percussion drowned out the strings at the end of "The Rhinegold (The Gold of the Rhine) and Siegfried's funeral march in Götterdämmerung (The twilight of the gods) also suffered a certain acoustic lack of control, with sonorities resolved for show and without caring for the nuances of the page. Much better, however, were the murmurs of the forest of Siegfried, which did have the subtlety and detail that the score demands.

"It is the first time that the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra has undertaken a tour like this, and it will not be easy for it to be repeated," said Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner and director of the Wagnerian festival held every summer in Bavaria, a few weeks ago. The tour in question begins on August 29 at the Palau de la Música, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Peralada Festival, and will then go through Santander, Seville, Valencia, and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The baton will be held by Pablo Heras-Casado (Granada, 1977), who made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2023 conducting Parsifal, and where in 2028 he will conduct the complete tetralogy of The Ring of the Nibelung. He is "one of the most recognized international batons currently," as Joan Oller, general director of the Palau de la Música, recalls. Heras-Casado, who retains Catalan from his years of training and work in Catalonia – which he speaks and writes fluently – speaks to ARA by phone during a break from the intense summer activity in Bayreuth.